When A Little Boy Connects Two Foster Moms Across The Globe

Like James Bond on a mission with the clock running. Time ticking. Plane leaving.

We wind around the streets of Shanghai to come to strong iron gates. Inside, an International School sits resurrected, for all to see.

The guard points us in the right direction in Chinese.

We drive along smooth cement roads, to find sprawling lawns and perfect houses…

As if waiting to be featured on some reality t.v. program.

I had heard about this Hudson, at a Starbucks in the city, next to one of the world’s largest shopping malls just the day before…

But, it is one thing to hear stories about an orphan you have never met, and quite another to look into the eyes of a child without parents, hear the voice and touch the face of a living, breathing miracle.

We flew ten hours, had a casual coffee date, and were now thrust into the last minute greeting before getting onto our plane, towards America.

But then we wind around the pavement and I spot that little boy sitting with his foster mom on the front porch, waiting for us to greet them.

A little boy needing a family, and this foster mom giving of herself to a child she will be leaving…and may never see again.

And how the cultures mesh, the world shrinks, how the time stops when we step off of our journey and step down to greet those God connects us with, in the heart of our humble journeys.

I take in a deep breath. Pray quietly where no one hears me. Ask God to help me keep calm as my heart is to take home and rescue every child…especially those needing families, like Hudson.

Us foster mom’s start talking.

She’s thin and fit, comfortable to talk with. She’s in Shaghai. Me, from America. But both of us connect, having the same hearts….taking in kids, needing love, needing families.

She tells me they are moving, and that’s why they can’t keep him. I feel for her, see her tears welling, and think of my own foster daughter at home that the state says may be leaving.

“I get you. I am a foster mom. We had one little guy who left after two years. And it’s hard,” I tell her.

And when you give with no promise of return. Step off the train of personal rewards and earning triumph or accolades…you see the glory of our Lord in ways you’ve never known before…but you also experience the “hard” in ways few will ever know.

“We are going to Peru, Lima,” she tells me.

I point to my husband that’s coming up the walkway and say, “No way! My husband is from Peru.” 

What are the chances? Of all of the places to be moving to, and all the places you could come from.

My husband and her husband chat.

The foster family has an opportunity to teach in Mira Flores, an affluent suburb of Lima, outside Peru’s city center.

My husband is shocked, telling them Mira Flores is the exact place he came from.

Two strangers meet because of this toddler who needs parents. Two journeys mix inside this cosmic craziness because, even though it’s often easy to forget...

Love is cement, more than it is pain.

I turn to Hudson. See him smile. He pats the stair for me to sit beside him.

I get low and look at his glowing eyes. See him connect with his foster mom and find a bond that’s strong and will likely make all his future attachments easier.

This thin, foster-mom-athlete, I hear her resistance, her patience, her belief in a little boy who keeps on giving and is ever so willing to meet the bar she keeps lifting for him, with wisdom and grace.

“He is the sweetest boy. So easy. So capable.” Her heart swells. And I feel it, love melting….without even having to look at her face.

“He needs surgery on his arm, but we believe he will be able to walk someday.” That triathlete inside her sees nothing as impossible…

And it’s clear her DNA has transferred to this little boy.

The foster brother hovers, like I’ve seen my own son do, when people came to inspect our foster children, to talk, and chat…

As if saying with confidence by his actions, “He is my little brother” and “He is valuable and wonderful,” all at the same time.

I see the love in his eyes. Hudson looks at him comfortably, and I can tell he loves him in return. The two role a ball as if they’ve known each other forever. The connection between the two boys is clear.

I want to wrap my arms around this family for all they have done, and the journey they have been on. The one they are going to…

Hudson engages, and smiles, and makes eyes contact. He looks to his foster mom frequently, which says…

Love isn’t something we are just born with…but something fought for and earned, something given as we do the hard work, and love with daily actions…not just empty words…

Those He puts in front of us.

“He’s smart. There is nothing mentally wrong with him. It’s just his body.” This foster mom looks at me.

I can tell she is serious, that her love is sincere and desperate for a home who will love him as she has, easily.

Us two foster mom’s from different continents hug a goodbye…as if saying, “I get you”.

“Getting” the hard, the tears, the questions, the staying up late into the night wondering if we are doing the right thing.

Trying to walk by faith.

We “get” the hardships of letting go, the long days, the unending prayers, the daily cry that the child you are holding might find their forever home, even if this journey seems unbearable…

The quiet work of the unseen foster parent.

And we meet, right there on the road of perfect. Right near the International School, drawing people from all different cultures all over the world.

One man who moved from Mira Flores, another family leaving. All of us stopping our journey, to connect around a little miracle, named Hudson…

Because one family decided to foster him, and another hopes to advocate for him….

Trusting there is another link somewhere out there that is his forever family.

Could you be the one that all of us were linked for? Is your heart tugging because a little boy sits, and waits, and fights to rise to every bar that’s been given him, still desperately needs a family?

Is your heart calling you to sit on the stair, carry on the rest of Hudson’s journey? Be his cheerleader, his advocate, his forever family?

Could you be the one meant to parent this little boy his foster mom says is the easiest little boy to raise? A boy who has multiple synostosis, but potential that amazed many?

Something happens when we stop to love, to pray, when we stop to seek His will, slow down and ask what road He wants us to take.

Sometimes that moves us to Lima, Peru. Other times it may take us to China…

Or, it may guide and direct us to take the first step in looking into adding a little boy like Hudson into our forever family.

(If you want more information about Hudson or simply have a few questions, please contact me at cjavellaneda@gmail.com)

If you don’t feel called to adoption, will you share this post so maybe a Facebook friend, someone you know on Twitter, or a family member through e-mail might learn of little Hudson, waiting in China, for a family of his own?